Steps to take if you have been ripped-off by a copy-cat government website

wealdroam

Libbybeth wrote: »

Of course she didnt get her licence, she had to pay another £50 this time to the correct people - I took her to the post office!

Now that you have confirmed that your daughter did not receive the service she paid for, it should be a simple matter for her to request a chargeback from her card issuer.

Have a read of MSE's Chargeback article for further details.

I notice you didn't supply the website address that your daughter used.
If you were to do that, it might help others avoid the same problem.

Edited to add:
Just noticed this in your latest post:

Libbybeth wrote: »

...that "providing a service" meant they were not the correct site and would be charging her £90 for the privilege of sending her a form.

Did you daughter actually receive the form you mention?
If so, I regret to have to say that the chargeback process I mentioned earlier is unlikely to work, because as you say she did receive the service agreed.
Doesn't mean you shouldn't try a chargeback though.

Sorry if I raised your hopes unnecessarily, but please do still post the website address.

Valli

Libbybeth wrote: »

Imoneyop - you clearly have no idea about these scam sites do you? Of course she didnt get her licence, she had to pay another £50 this time to the correct people - I took her to the post office!

With regard to your advice about my parenting, my daughter (who gained her GCSE in ICT) checked that the site had the safety padlock as she has been taught by me to do. She has learnt her lesson the hard way as she did not recognise that "providing a service" meant they were not the correct site and would be charging her £90 for the privilege of sending her a form. She wanted to surprise us that she had applied and paid all by herself and only realised her mistake when she checked her bank balance a few days later and told me they had taken the wrong amount. A once in a lifetime experience ruined. Oh and just in case you wondered neither at check out or in email they sent to confim her transaction did they state she had paid £90, I wonder why...

I have forwarded your details to mumsnet as you are obviously an expert in advising
parents....

Martin Lewis set up this site to help people, many people post comments on here for the sake of it rather than than to be helpful...
My daughter feels very stupid and upset, she is not alone hundreds of people have also been caught out including adults renewing their licences, more publicity is need to draw attention to it.

Please do complain to your MP about this - then, hopefully, legislation will be introduced to outlaw these clone sites.

powerful_Rogue

Libbybeth wrote: »

With regard to your advice about my parenting, my daughter (who gained her GCSE in ICT) checked that the site had the safety padlock as she has been taught by me to do.

No offence, but you should be doing a lot more then that. Any site can get an SSL certificate (meaning they have the padlock) for as little as £20.

Valli

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

No offence, but you should be doing a lot more then that. Any site can get an SSL certificate (meaning they have the padlock) for as little as £20.

Now THAT was something I didn't know!

powerful_Rogue

Valli wrote: »

Now THAT was something I didn't know!

Yup. Heres it advertised on GoDaddy
http://uk.godaddy.com/ssl/ssl-certificates.aspx?gclid=CPuH7JGS_LwCFafnwgodY24A-g&isc=ss19uk06&currencytype=GBP&ef_id=UIFRmgAABC9z8CFn:20140305193614:s

You can get it much cheaper then that though. I got a free SSL certificate with a virtual server I purchased @ £20 per month.

Libbybeth

No offence taken powerful_Rogue as that is very useful information, however I was merely pointing out that she knew not to send personal information such as credit card details without this, remember she made the mistake of thinking she was on a government website.

Ok to finish the story, as I hope it will be useful to others:
The site she used was called dvla-driving-licence.co.uk owned by TAD services (this at the time was a sponsored link and came up first in the search engine...yes she is now aware of sponsored links)
When she realised that £90 instead of the £50 had been taken from her account she told me straight away. I realised immediately she had used the wrong website (for the trolls... she did this off her own bat as a surprise for me and her dad that she had applied and paid for her own provisional before you all start posting how I should have been watching her!)

To be clear what she had paid £90 for was to receive a form with her details on it (which was then sent to DVLA) - not a licence.

I sent an email to the company (within 7 days) cancelling the transaction and requesting a refund. I had a reply to say that they would refund less £8 charge which was fair. However she only received £32, several emails from me later in which I threatened to take them to Civil court, (please note if you are doing this make sure you give them a reasonable date to refund by as this will be in your favour if you go to court) and with no response from them I told them that I was proceeding with civil action. They then responded and asked for a government gateway number. As we had completed a new application on a form from the post office and posted it we did not have one (do not use the form they sent you - start a new application). I wrote back to the company stating that this was simply delaying tactics by them but gave them a further date to refund by stating that this would be in my favour and I would be claiming my costs too.
Today my daughter was refunded a further £50 so £82 in all, it took about a month to get this.

To the trolls that regulaly post unhelpful remarks that make people feel more stupid then they already do, these sites are deliberately designed to catch people out otherwise they would be very clear on what you are paying for on checkout and would not use colours on their website to mimic other government ones and all their fees would be in the same size font as the rest of the website not smaller. They may be operating within the law but as trading standards say..only just ...they are treading a fine line. On the advice of Valli I will be contacting my MP to highlight these websites.

Money Saving Expert was set up to help us all and for us to help one another as my parents always said if you haven't got anything useful to say...dont say anything at all.....

Hermione_Granger

keyser666 wrote: »

Oh and for the recorded, (record) imoneyop has helped many people on here with their knowledge but hey, easy to point the finger at someone else rather than admit your (you're) the actual thicko fvcktard

And you have the nerve to refer to them as "thicko"!

Valli

@ Libbybeth

Then they were charging her the £50 for the licence and the £40 for their 'service'.

Thanks for mentioning that you will contact your MP - these are the people who can change the law. They COULD simply amend the Distance Selling Regs (DSRs) to remove the get-out clause so many of these companies operate under. (For your reference it's that IF the provide a 'service' which starts 'immediately' they do not have to offer a cooling off period)'

It's my belief that, were the DSRs to be changed to force them to offer a cooling-off period and thus refund unwary customers, this would result in a massive reduction in the operation of all these sites.

In fact you could mention the DSRs to your MP...

shaun_from_Africa

Personally, I don't think that changing the DSR's so that there is a cooling off period for all services is a good idea.

A few weeks ago, I paid for an architect to draw out some designs for me, something that I needed fairly urgently.
This was all done via his website and if there was the possibility of me cancelling the contract within 7 days, he probably would have waited until this time had passed.

(For your reference it's that IF the provide a 'service' which starts 'immediately' they do not have to offer a cooling off period)'

The service doesn't have to start immediately. Provided that it is started anytime within the 7 day period then they do not have to allow a cancellation

Libbybeth

Valli, I wish that were the case, no all of the £90 was simply for a piece of paper the same as if you apply online to DVLA(the correct website) they send you the completed form to sign, you send it back with a further £50 for the licence, a total of £140. Thank you for your advice. The cooling off period certainly plus them having to state at checkout amount they are charging too.


keyser666 I am tempted to like your post, then you can say you have helped me too....not sure where the holidays and passport have come in.......methinks you dont understand....TROOLLLL LOLLL LOLLL